What might our church services be like if
we really believed that when we gather in His Name, Jesus is actually in our
midst, and acted accordingly? Dana Acker
While even I would admit that not all
tradition is bad/wrong and I would acknowledge there are times when I desire to
attend an Episcopal Church for its liturgy, do I want church as usual, or do I
want to see God move in a “Scandalously Better” way? John Calsin
“Most
Christians would like to send their recruits to Bible college for five years. I
would like to send them to hell for five minutes. That would do more than
anything else to prepare them for a lifetime of compassionate ministry.”
General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army
++++++++++++++++++++++
Continued
from last week where Dana responds to my question of church relevance today.
Dana
Writes
IF there is to be any kind of Christian
spiritual renewal in our day, we are going to have to want it the way a
starving man wants food. When I worked
at the Bowery Mission, I do not recall any of the street men complaining that
our catch-as-catch-can soup of the day wasn’t lobster bisque. Starving people do not turn up their noses at
mustard because it’s French’s, and not Grey Poupon.
When the church wants to quit playing
church, and wants Jesus more than Starbucks, or weight rooms, or swimming
pools, or free Wi-Fi, or more people than denomination X, Y, or Z has, or a
bigger building, perhaps we’ll have another renewal. Typically churches
undergoing persecution are more dynamic and revivalistic.
If the wrong party gets in control this
election (not that they are not all a brood of vipers on both sides of the
aisle, but one side is more militantly anti-Christianity) (this was written
before the Trump win in the recent election) then we may begin to experience
real hard times. If Islam gains a foothold
in this country, as some are now working feverishly to accomplish, and they
should gain a voting majority—look out! Many people at various times have said
that they’d like to have been in the 1st century church. Really?
What was it that made them want that? The imprisonment? The being fed to
lions? The being burned at the stake or used as torches for Caesar’s garden
parties? Well, if things keep going as
they have been maybe they’ll get their wish, or the closest thing to it.
When steeples with crosses atop churches
start coming down because they are offensive to the majority’s sensibilities,
and pastors begin going to jail, and one cannot make a living if he or she
confesses Christ as Lord over the sub-deity du jour, then we’ll witness first-hand
the proverbial separation of the men from the boys, so to speak. Not trying to
be sexist by that analogy, as I’m sure hungry lions in coliseums liked females
for snacks just as good as their male counterparts.
Persecution might, sadly, be the best thing
that could happen to the church in America, seeing that we find ourselves not
all that hungry for God. Might it actually be easier to find God while
occupying a prison cell as opposed to a pew? I think that is a relevant
question we should ask of ourselves.
Maybe we, the church, need to become aware of the fact that we really
are standing shoulder to shoulder, arms locked with our brethren, and looking
inward. Maybe we need to turn around and
be looking outward for a change (I think that’s called repentance.) Maybe we need to invite, compel even the
tattooed, the metal pierced, and neon-pink haired modern version of the dirty,
drug addled hippy into our churches and invite them to sit beside us. Maybe we need to give them a big hug and tell
them we love them just like they are, and that we were just like them once, and
Jesus condescended to become one of us, and that He died for us, and that He
loves us and wants us all at the family table at the marriage supper of the
Lamb—freaky tattoos, faces full of stainless steel and all. I mean, come on, if there was a room full of
tattooed, pierced kids with their hands in the air, praising God for all that
they were worth, wouldn’t you think God would get glory from that?
Jesus wasn’t in His day, and still isn’t,
too proud to hang out with sinners.
Thank the Lord. And we need to throw our church pride and denominational
pride out the window and go hang out with the sinners too. They don’t need lattes or gyms, or high speed
internet; they need to be shown the love of Jesus by those of us who have been
shown the love of Jesus when we weren’t too pretty to look at once upon a
time. Reckon the Lord might bless that?
There’s another thing too which I believe
is harming the church, and that is it is too much like the world in another
way. As we as a society have turned and
bowed our knee to the other major religion in the country, science, we’ve
forgotten that our first love was a supernatural one.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not
anti-science. When I had my hernia
surgery several years ago, I was profoundly grateful for science’s influence on
modern medicine. A few years earlier,
they would have sliced me open like they were gutting a deer, shored up my
intestinal retaining wall, and I would have been laid up for weeks
recovering. Instead they drilled three
small holes in my abdomen and went in with miniature tools, guided by a doctor
with what he described as a “joy stick,” similar to that which one uses to play
a video game. And that’s not the only
improvement in life that science has given us.
So I’m not anti-science, but let’s face it we (as a society in this
country and world) hold it in esteem almost as high, if not equal or even
superior to God.
As a result, we approach everything in
life (including Christianity) in a cold, sterile, empirical fashion. To believe in an all-powerful God who you
can’t see, an afterlife, miracles (not as a result of science) or worse, the
reality of angels and demons is viewed as Neanderthal at best, bordering on
lunacy at worse.
Sin has been replaced by “problems” or
“issues,” or terms like “socially maladaptive behavior.” The world’s cure for these ills is more
education, better environment, acceptance, and tolerance. Oh yes, silly me, I forgot, halting global
warming should be included in that list as well—and there are churches touting
those solutions (even if “Christianized”) as well. After all we cannot use terms like sin
anymore, because it might make someone feel bad about themselves. And while
that is the way of the world, it has wormed its way into the thinking and
preaching of the church in America today.
We mimic what we see all around us.
This past Christmas (something else we’re
not supposed to say) a friend of mine gave me a copy of Dr. Michael Heiser’s
“The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible.” http://drmsh.com/
Dr. Heiser advocates our reading the Bible in the context of the time it
was written, the place where it was written, and the people to whom it was
written, instead of the through the contexts or “filters” of our denominational
or theological traditions and distinctives.
In other words, we need to study in such a
way so that the things that 1st Century and before Jews had going
through their heads, are going through ours as well, when we approach the
Scriptures, and read what the text actually says. We’re hands down guilty of
always trying to determine or interpret what the Bible says through our
Protestant, Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Anglican,
Pentecostal, Charismatic, Brethren, Calvinist, Arminian, Pre-Trib, Mid-Trib,
Post-Trib, Premillennial, Postmillennial, Amillennial, or what have you
“filters.” To read the Bible in its original context cannot help but to remind
us of just how supernatural our Christian faith actually is. We, as a church, have forgotten that, or
worse, ignored that because we don’t want to be seen as out of step with modern
cultural mores.
That is not to say that our church
traditions or theological beliefs are wrong. Not at all! In my own life, through times of stress,
sorrow or the storms of life, God, through my theological beliefs was a rock,
and anchor to hold me firm, keep me afloat, and give me a framework with which
I could make sense out of said events.
But in re-reading the Bible after being exposed to Dr. Heiser’s view on
things, I am seeing that we, the church have, in dramatic ways, cut ourselves
loose from our supernatural moorings.
Again, I’m not inferring that we divorce
ourselves from logical and reasonable attempts to defend the faith, but at the
same time we must realize and embrace the fact that we serve a supernatural
God, who works His will in supernatural ways and through His supernatural [and
natural] servants. Conversely, we are
beset and buffeted by fallen, evil, supernatural beings and forces out to
hinder and even destroy our walk and mission. Satan and his minions cannot harm
God, but in light of that, we’re the next best target. But in today’s society
and even in today’s church that’s considered crazy talk. We cannot hope to attract people to our
“keeping up with the times” modern churches if we believe in angels and devils,
can we? People will think we’re daft.
Are we ashamed of the fact our God is not
like us? Perhaps the better question
would be why aren’t we ashamed that we are not more like Him? How mundane would the exodus from Egypt have
been if God hadn’t parted the Red Sea?
What if instead of the miraculous, God’s people formed a committee,
argued about what kind of bridge would be the best for crossing, and then split
from each other because they couldn’t agree on what color to paint it.
What might our church services be like if
we really believed that when we gather in His Name, Jesus is actually in our
midst, and acted accordingly? What if we
quit tucking our tails between our hind legs and running off yelping, and
instead bared our teeth at the evil in society, believing that “…the gates of
hell will not prevail against [us, the church.”] What if we got out of our comfort zones and
cast our boats on the sea of human sin and depravity, and hauled aboard those
drowning in its muck?
Alistair Begg, in a sermon contrasting the
army of Israel standing immobile in the face and taunts of Goliath with David’s
indignation at the giant’s insulting the Name of God, says that Israel’s army’s
problem was that they “didn’t believe their religion.” Might it be high time the Christian church of
today repents of not believing our religion?
Dana
++++++++++++++++++++
John
Writes: The above spurred additional responses.
Thu,
Oct 20, 2016 at 5:58 PM
Dana
I started a part-time job this week.
More later on that. When I got home today, instead of starting dinner I've been
reading your response. But I've got to get dinner started because Carol will be
home soon; however, your response has triggered a question.
Have we answered the question of why
the church isn’t relevant today with overt how-to steps, or are
the changes necessary too obtuse?
+++++++++++++++++++
Dana Responded
Fri, Oct
21, 2016 at 8:10 AM
John,
I think the problem is we rely too
heavily on the "how to" steps. We are conditioned into thinking
you can fix anything in X amount of steps. If you go into a Christian
book shop you can probably find several "how to" books on how to fix
the church, your walk with God, your marriage, your finances, global warming,
alien abductions..... These books have been around for quite a while and
yet the problems get worse.
Now the books aren't all bad, but
the premise that a spiritual problem can be fixed in X amount of steps is
missing the point. Our problems lie in our (individual and corporate--the
church) relationship with God. We do not take Christ's appearance in the
Gospel of Mark seriously.
Mark
1:14-15 states:
14 Now after John was arrested Jesus came
into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at
hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (ESV)
1) We do not live and order
our lives as if we really believe (and accept) that Jesus is the King.
King means absolute authority in every detail of life. Sorry, it just
ain't happening either in the world, and increasingly so in the church.
We all want Jesus to be Savior, but Lord too...?
We Americans especially do not like
the idea of a King. In fact we built this nation on the premise of
fighting a war to rid ourselves of a king. Our whole American upbringing
is so based on individual liberty that we have an aversion to anyone being King
over us. And to the degree we do not willingly bow our knee to Jesus the
KING, we'll have lots of time in hell to figure out whether or not that was
such a good idea.
2) Where's the repentance
either individually or corporately? (and by corporately I include the nation as
a whole, the government, and most importantly, the church, <1 Peter 4:17>)
3) As I said earlier, we, like
Israel of Saul and David's time, do not believe our religion.
We are in almost total violation of
Mark 1:14-15
There are no political or physical
solutions to a spiritual problem.
So there's my "how
to" fix things in 3 points, although I can't take credit for the 3
points--I'm just a parrot.
Dana
++++++++++++++++++++++
John
Adds:
Oct. 23, 2016
Dana
This morning at
Coastal Christian Church in Ocean City, NJ, the pastor and speaker, Matt
Stokes, started a series on the book of James. Stokes was talking about why he
believes his church is growing as it is. He said, “Salvation happens here.”
Then he listed three reasons to which he attributed the growth: they share the grace of God; God’s Word is
preached; and it is the heart of the members to bring others to church.
He said it is
Coastal’s purpose to apply God’s Word to everyday life (i.e. relevance).
And he talked
about all the miracles that had taken place there in the 13 years he’s been the
pastor. Not because he was the pastor, but because they believed God and were
acting on His Word.
If you remember,
Ocean City is a resort town. Summer, when the population can swell to as much
as ten times the year round population, is over. Even September is past when
people without children come to enjoy the still warm ocean, easy shopping, and
almost empty beaches. But the sanctuary for the second service was almost full.
As we drove around town near the church looking for a parking place, even most
of the parking places were taken. Other than the grocery store with its own
parking lot, not much was open so all those cars weren’t in town shopping.
While this statement could be argued, I believe, there was no other reason for
the parking places to be taken on a late fall Sunday morning other than people
were going to Coastal Christian because it is relevant. Several weeks ago, they
even held a baptism late on Sunday afternoon on the beach, baptizing over 60
people in the wavy ocean. And there were maybe a total of 250 to 300 people on
the beach for it. Relevance.
I could go on,
but we need to bring this to an end (leaving the door open, however, for
further discussion). I don’t want to be judgmental, but over the past almost 17 years, Carol and I have attended at
least 23 churches (This in itself is worthy of a future post because we are not
church hoppers; although some readers may throw that up at me.), a couple of
them for more than several years. What I’m now going to say is strictly from my
Pentecostal point of view, based on my experiences and on my feelings. But
while all those churches were Christian churches, and while the Bible was
preached or taught in every case, and while in almost every case, the members
were good people (keeping in mind Jesus comment in Mark 10:18 "Why do
you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God
alone.” NIV) God’s tangible,
and at times an almost palpable presence was missing. In the words that I have
shared with others who understand, God did not show up.
While context
could be argued, I think the below is appropriate for our discussion on Church
relevance today. In The Message Bible, Ps 53:2, 3, 6a
God sticks his head out of heaven. He looks around.
He’s looking for someone not stupid—one man, even, God-expectant, just one
God-ready woman. He comes up empty. A string of zeros. Useless, unshepherded
sheep....Is there anyone around to save Israel? (or, the Church?)
Some years ago, I
saw a documentary on church. One of the cuts was from a then well known church
leader referring to his drug usage days. God was calling him out of the drug
culture and he went to some church. His comment about that experience was, “I
gave up drugs for this.?!”
“I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, and heaven without hell.” General William Booth, Founder of the Salvation Army
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